Augusta is a small town located on the
Blackwood River and the Flinders Bay area of the Southern Ocean.
It has 2 Caravan Parks, Turner's and Flinders Bay, and many B & B's/Chalets, a Motel and a Hotel for accommodation.
Leisure activities include numerous walk
trails, boating, fishing and sightseeing of the rugged coastline and unspoilt river.
The acclaimed Museum has artefacts dating back to the original settlers of 1830 and as Augusta is the 3rd oldest settlement in WA there is much history.
For supplies there is an
IGA Supermarket, Service station, Chemist, Emporium, Craft
shop, and more.
Oh yes, and don't forget the
Bakery. Augusta's is one of the best.
The town is within the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River local government area, and is in the Leeuwin Ward. It is connected by public transport to
Perth via Transwa coach service SW1.
Augusta was a summer holiday town for many during most of the twentieth century, but late in the 1990s many people chose to retire to the region for its cooler weather. As a consequence of this and rising land values in the Augusta-Margaret River area, the region has experienced significant social change
The coastline near the Augusta area was first sighted by Europeans in March 1622 when the Dutch East India Company ship Leeuwin (Lioness) mapped and named the land north of
Cape Leeuwin between
Hamelin Bay and
Point D'Entrecasteaux 't Landt van de Leeuwin. In 1801 Captain Matthew Flinders named the "south-western, and most projecting part of Leeuwin's Land"
Cape Leeuwin.
Augusta was founded in 1830. In March of that year, a number of settlers, including
John Molloy and members of the Bussell and Turner families, had arrived at the Swan River Colony on board the Warrior. On their arrival the Lieutenant-Governor Captain James Stirling advised them that most of the good land near the Swan River had already been granted, and suggested that they form a new sub-colony in the vicinity of
Cape Leeuwin.
The following month, Stirling sailed with a party of prospective settlers on board the Emily Taylor. After arriving at the mouth of the
Blackwood River, the party spent four days exploring the area. Stirling then confirmed his decision to establish a subcolony, the settlers' property was disembarked, and the town of Augusta declared at the site.
Stirling named the town in honour of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the sixth son of George III, due to its location within Sussex County, one of the 26 counties of Western Australia that were designated in 1829 as cadastral divisions.
During the 1880s, an expansion of the timber industry occurred following the construction of a timber mill at nearby Kudardup and the completion of jetties at
Hamelin Bay and Flinders Bay.
Augusta was a stopping place on the
Busselton to Flinders Bay Branch Railway, which was government run from the 1920s to the 1950s. Prior to that M. C. Davies had a timber railway system that went to both
Hamelin Bay and Flinders Bay jetties in the 1890s.
In 1961, over 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) of farms, bush land and forests between Margaret River and Augusta were destroyed by bushfires. Augusta was saved from these because a serious fire a few months earlier had created a low fuel zone north of the town. The Augusta residents cared for the school children who had been evacuated from Karridale and Kudardup.
Many tourist websites and information conflate Augusta and
Cape Leeuwin with features that exist nearby. The Augusta townsite now also includes the former separate Flinders Bay community at its southern end, where there had been a jetty, railway terminus, and whaling location. The new Augusta
Boat Harbour to the south of Flinders Bay, is
well outside of the townsite
Matthew Flinders named
Cape Leeuwin after the first known ship to have visited the area is the Leeuwin ("Lioness"), a Dutch vessel that charted some of the nearby coastline in 1622. The log of the Leeuwin has been lost, so very little is known of the voyage. However, the land discovered by the Leeuwin was recorded on a 1627 map by Hessel Gerritsz: Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht ("Chart of the Land of Eendracht"), which appears to show the coast between present-day
Hamelin Bay and Point D’Entrecasteaux.
Cape Leeuwin itself cannot be recognised.
Other European vessels passed by for the next two centuries, including the Dutch 't Gulden Zeepaert, commanded by François Thijssen, in 1627 and the French Gros Venture, under Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn, in 1772.
The first known sighting of the cape was by Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in 1791. d'Entrecasteaux thought the cape was an island, and named it "Isle St Allouarn" ("St Allouarn Island"), in honour of Captain de St Aloüarn. Ten years later, Matthew Flinders began his survey of the South coast of New Holland from
Cape Leeuwin in 1801 when he named it. Flinders landed in the bay to the east of
Cape Leeuwin, today’s Flinders Bay. Flinders was aware that the area had been known to the Dutch as "Leeuwin's Land".
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian Continent, in the state of Western Australia. A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further to the south. The nearest settlement, north of the cape, is Augusta. South-east of
Cape Leeuwin, the coast of Western Australia goes much further south. Located on headland of the cape is the
Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse and the buildings that were used by the
lighthouse keepers. In Australia, the Cape is considered the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean; however most other nations and bodies consider the Southern Ocean to only exist south of 60°S